Good show at the Emerald Queen Casino last night. I arrived about a half an hour late as we were rushing from the Van’s Warped Tour show about 20 miles away. I hate showing up late for concerts, but I think I only missed the first could song.

The stage show for Blue Oyster Cult wasn’t much to speak of, but they totally rocked. I forgot how much I love their spooky, poetic, mystical power rock, which sometimes results in a melodic celestial song such as The Vigil, or a journey through the medieval world of Black Blade.

These guys brought back a ton of memories for me, not the least of which was remembering how I used to draw their band’s, hook-and-cross logo on the inside of my Pee-Chee folder in junior high school hoping that my mom wouldn’t find it and think I was becoming part of some creepy, dark, demonic cult or something. Mostly, I also remember cruising around late at night in my car with friends listening to my cassette tapes of their albums Agent of Fortune, Mirrors and of course one of the best live albums ever made (in my opinion), Some Enchanted Evening.

They played a great set and mix of their whole career going all the way back to their first album. They played a song that wasn’t part of their typical set-list (I Love the Night) which of course the crowd loved. Lead guitarist and vocal Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser showed his incredible guitar prowess in the song Buck’s Boogie (which must have been) a ten plus minute instrumental rock fest. They of course played one of their most popular songs, Godzilla in which they inserted a short tribute to bass player Kasim Sulton where they all jammed out medley of songs from his career such as I Love Rock ‘N Roll while with Joan Jett, Bang the Drum All Day when with Todd Rundgren and Paradise by the Dashboard Light when with Meat Loaf…what a set. The last song of their set was the most iconic and of course one of their most popular songs Don’t Fear the Reaper. They came back and performed a three song encore consisting of Career of Evil, Hot Rails to Hell and closing out the night with, Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll, a song from their first album from 1972,

Toni and I took a quick trip to Las Vegas to see Guns N’ Roses on their last night of their extended Vegas stay at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip that had us in town for less than 24 hours, but we were so impressed with GNR at the Golden Gods Awards that we had to see them again for their full set.

This show was a little different than any other show we have been to as the start time of the show wasn’t scheduled until 10:00pm, which meant that it likely wouldn’t start until 11:00pm which is when most shows are wrapping up. This would have been fine if GNR would have come on without an opening act, but unfortunately they had two. The first was a three-piece metal band from New York (who’s name I never heard), which had promise, but at 10:30 when everyone really just wanted the main show to start, they didn’t really have a chance. After this band, we had the unfortunate displeasure of being subjected to about a half an hour of rambling, offensive and very crude crap from Andrew Dice Clay. His stuff wasn’t funny in the 80’s and is certainly not funny now. I guess because he was performing in the venue next door, and maybe Axl wasn’t ready so they needed some filler. He was actually getting quite a few “boos” from the audience. He wasn’t off stage soon enough for us… I couldn’t imagine seeing a full hour and a half show of his stuff..

At a little past midnight, Nick Cage came out sporting a tank top and his tattoos and introduced Axl and the guys (finally). Kicking off the show was DJ Ashba up on a raised platform, silhouetted against a red background of light jamming out the opening riffs of Chinese Democracy. The rest of the show absolutely did not disappoint. From the powerful solos of all three outrageous guitar players, to a number of jam sessions ( including Led Zeppelin’s Babe I’m Gonna Leave You) spread throughout the show, to Dizzy Reed’s piano solo and bass player Tommy Stinson’s vocals on the classic Rolling Stones tune You Can’t Always Get What You Want. They of course played nearly every hit in the library playing for over three hours. Some of the most memorable songs of the night in my opinion were November Rain where they wrapped around it an absolutely incredible version of Derek and the Dominos Layla. Axl was playing the grand piano on a stage which lifted about 20 feet into the air, with pyrotechnic explosions and showers of sparks flowing down behind him…INCREDIBLE!. We of course enjoyed Sweet Child O’ Mine, Welcome to the Jungle, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Don’t Cry and You Could Be Mine.

The show ended with a five-song encore following about 28 songs in their main set, culminating with Paradise City, which they actually had to start over from the middle as I think Axl lost his place in the song… but nobody cared, it is such an awesome song it was great to hear it more than once.

The show finally ended a little after 3:00am and we were beat and not looking forward to only 3 ½ hours of sleep before we had to get up and get to the airport.. But we had a great time.

Another great flash from the ’80’s tonight with Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma. It is hard to believe that they have been around for 35 years, and Toni and I both noticed and commented to each other how darn happy they looked, not only as performers but as a married couple…how refreshing.

This was apparently an early warm-up concert where they were practicing and getting things sorted out for their upcoming summer tour. You couldn’t have prove it by me, to me it was a absolutely stunning and flawless performance by one the most revered icons of the 1980’s – Perfect!

They played a ton of hits that I had forgotten about and haven’t heard since back in the day. Songs like You Better Run, which I didn’t know, but was the second video ever played on MTV back in August of 1981. They also played a very powerful version of Hell is For Children which apparently they play at every concert as a sort of an anthem for abused children and they vow to keep playing until there is no more child abuse. Some of the other songs they played were, We Belong, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Love is a Battlefield, Promises in the Dark and Invincible.

They closed the night with their second encore song of Heartbreaker which really showed Neil’s fantastic guitar skills. The song morphed into Johnny Cash’s song Ring of Fire at some point, and then culmenating into a number of classic guitar riffs including Led Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker.. what an ending to a perfect performance!